2009 Marv Jensen Spring Smash

In March each year, there are usualy a few rall tournaments. This year, there were 3 that we participated in. 3 Weeks in a row. It was fun, but tough.
This week, we had the Spring Smash tourney. I played at Marv Jensen for almost 6 years while working at ACS. So, this facility, above all others, feels like home for me. Which is good, since we spent at least 2 hours and sometimes as much as 5 hours, each night from Wednesday to Saturday. After a couple days, it seemed all we did at home was shower and change to come back to Marv Jensen again.
Alyssa, Kylie and Myself all played in this tournament. The girls ended up being in a combined division, and played a Round Robin format, even playing each other.

Alyssa has progressed a ton as a multi bounce player. She played all single bounce opponents, and held her own for quite a while. She would run around and get to balls that we would have thought down. She warmed up so seriously before each match, and practiced until she was ready to begin the games. During the games, her little legs kept pushing and pulling her all over the court. She got some incredible shots and played very well. While playing Kylie, she actually won 1 of the games, and lost 1 to Kylie. Before the tie-breaker was started, and after realizing it was after 9pm, we decided to call off the last game. Alyssa scored 1 more point than Kylie and was labeled the winner. What a night. 3 games were played by the girls, and all were way tired.

Kylie had trouble getting into the games, as she faced boys a lot older than herself, and didnt have the multi bounce to fall back on like Alyssa did. She did play well, and has improved so much. She can stand up against the boys, but gets a bit nervous and shys away from some of the shots, causing her to loose her cool and get her head out of the game. It was amazing to see some of the shots and gets that she was able to pull off. She enjoyed the tournament and realized that we all need to practice a bit more. We will be pitting the 2 girls against each other in our famliy games, and play them like real games witha ref and all.

I played alone on Thursday night, with none of the girls having a game that night. I played in C division. My first game, i was so off and so cold that I could only muster 4 points. My opponent was one I had played previously, in another tournament. I had beaten him in 1 game, and lost in 2 other games. The same thing happened this time. I truly thought i had him in the tie-breaker, as I had control of the game (I felt) for quite a while, but ended up loosing the momentum and lost the game. So, I was out of the regular tourney, and shunted into the Consolation round. My next game could have been Friday or Saturday. We went Friday to watch the girls play, so found out when my game would be. It was slated for Saturday at noon. If I won that game, I would play another game at 3pm on Saturday. We awoke Saturday, got all ready, took my powershot to get jazzed up for the game, got dressed, and make the trek up to Mark Jensen, to find out that my noon game was really just a 3pm game. Bummer. When I did get onto the court, I was ready to play, having watched 3 hours of play previously. I ended up winning the Consolation final in 2 games. I won a can of new racquetball's, yeah!

We love playing this sport. We love interacting with the community and love watching other players compete. Some of the games are intense, and we learn alot simply by watching others play. In the end, I hope that these activities brings our family together, and helps us stay active, learn to compete, gain skills that can be used in many other aspects of our lives.